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Fernando Alonso leads F1 testing in 1st drive with Ferrari; Schumacher 3rd

By: Paul Logothetis, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

3/02/2010 5:26 PM | Comments: 0

VALENCIA, Spain - Fernando Alonso took to his Ferrari immediately Wednesday as the two-time Formula One champion produced the fastest time in the season's first testing session.

Alonso set a fastest time of 1 minute, 11.470 seconds from 127 laps of the Cheste circuit, where a single-day record of 36,400 spectators gathered for the Spaniard's first session in the iconic red car.

"It was an important day for me, my first time in Ferrari, a very emotional day," Alonso said.

Pedro De la Rosa of Sauber trailed his Spanish countryman by just more than half a second, while Michael Schumacher was nearly 1 second back for third as the seven-time F1 champion begins his comeback with Mercedes GP.

"We will be competitive, but whether it's right away a winning car or not that's another story," Schumacher said. "I wouldn't expect to be winning right from the beginning, it wasn't something I was aiming for and expecting to be the case but we need to be strong enough in the development."

Defending F1 champion Jenson Button was fifth after a slow start in his McLaren, managing a best time of 1:12.951 from 82 laps after working out seating issues in the morning and adjusting to his new car.

"It would have been nice to have got some more testing done, setup work," Button said. "But this test was always to get used to environment inside the cockpit, get used to the team and to run through all of the checks you do at the first test."

The interest over Alonso's move to Ferrari eclipsed the previous record attendance of 35,000 set more than two years ago when Alonso had his first drive here after returning to Renault from McLaren.

Alonso, who left Renault at the end of last year to join Ferrari, fizzled in that session but impressed in the Italian car, which has shown signs of being a lot more competitive than last season.

Still, Alonso tempered expectations.

"The problem with the first impression is it's always good - it was very good last year and I was not in Q3 very often," Alonso said. "It was a very good day because I found the car very easy to drive because Felipe (Massa) was running two days and I've been taking this information from him and it was a help. Let's wait."

Ferrari showed no reliability problems as it ran more laps than the other six teams over three days, with Massa leading the field over the first two days as the Brazilian showed no effects from the life-threatening crash he survived in July.

After two wasted seasons at Renault and a difficult one at McLaren, Alonso seems to be feeling at home.

"It's unbelievable the feeling here, the passion of everybody," Alonso said of his new team before comparing Wednesday to his first day at McLaren in 2007. "We don't have the same culture or character so it was more cold the atmosphere there."

Schumacher, who drove for Ferrari before retiring in 2006, ran 82 laps with a best time of 1:12.438 to improve on his best time from Monday by more than half a second. The 41-year-old German is returning to the sport for the first time in three years.

"Much easier than I expected it," Schumacher said about readapting to an F1 car. "I thought it needed more time but it went pretty quickly."

Button, who finished behind Toro Rosso driver Jaime Alguersuari, won the championship last season driving for Brawn GP, which was bought by Mercedes.

"It would be wrong to compare because this is the first day in the new team," Button said. "It was a useful day but it was a little bit frustrating this morning it took us a long time to sort the seat but that's how it is the first time with a new team."

Russian driver Vitaly Petrov, who was making his debut in a Renault, was over 2 seconds back in sixth ahead of Nico Hulkenberg of Williams.

Most of the F1 teams will now head to the next test session from Feb. 10-13 in Jerez, Spain.

"The main focus now is to look at the reliability, to do as many laps as you can and not worry too much for the lap times," Schumacher said. "Yes, you look at (the lap times) but you need to pinpoint and focus on main, important (things)."

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